An al Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group founded by veteran Algerian terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar has claimed responsibility in statements to media outlets for a hotel siege in central Mali at the weekend in which 17 people died.
Sahara-based al Mourabitoun, which also has links to radical Islamic leader Amadou Koufa, told the AFP news agency that it had carried out the attack on the Byblos Hotel in the central town of Sevare, 600 km (375 miles) northeast of the Malian capital Bamako.
“The hand of Allah has guided the mujahedeen of Sevare against the enemies of Islam,” a spokesperson for the group, Souleyman Mohamed Kennen, said in a phone interview. Qatari-based television network Al Jazeera also said it had received a brief statement from al-Mourabitoun claiming responsibility for the attack, which began early on Friday and ended nearly 24 hours later when security forces stormed the building.
“Elements of the al-Murabitoun group which follows al Qaeda, following a lengthy period of surveillance and diligence, managed to carry out the operation in the city of Sevare, and specifically on the Byblos Hotel, which was inhabited by Western nationals,” al Jazeera quoted the statement as saying.
“We will issue a subsequent statement with full details of the operation,” the group said. The death toll in Friday’s attack included nine civilians, five of whom worked for the UN mission in Mali (MINUSMA), as well as four Malian soldiers and four militants.
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